semanticsIf [God] is to be denied on the basis of being supernatural, then are all things supernatural to be similarly discarded by Atheists?
Not by definition. The only thing being an atheist implies is a lack of belief in god. It says nothing about how you reached that conclusion or how you feel about anything else.
Atheism, by its strictest definition, only concerns itself with the nonexistence of God or gods. That said, many if not most non-believers come by their atheism through a firm foundation of skepticism and/or naturalism, either of which would preclude belief in other non-god-related supernatural phenomena.
There’s a difference between “most atheists think X” and “thinking X is a component of atheism”. The clue is in the name a- (without) -theos (God). That’s it. Most atheists are also afairyists and aunicornists and what-have-you, but this is no part of the definition of atheism.
I’d say “absolutely” but really the strict definition is “Atheists don’t believe in God” not “Atheists don’t believe in magic.”
Generally if you believe in the supernatural, you’re not going to have any problem believing in God, and generally, if you don’t believe in God, you’re not going to believe in magic either.
But it’s not incoherent to say: I don’t believe in god, but I do believe in fairies.
If you’re asking if atheists reject the existence of miracles, ghosts, fairies, gnomes, unicorns and magic, then yes.
Atheists only espouse the existence of one supernatural being - the Flying Spaghetti Monster ;)
Let me offer a different opinion. What’s in a name? Just because the phenomenon was named “atheism” doesn’t mean a priory that it only applies to the existence of some god. “Atheideifairyunicornist” just doesn’t have as nice a ring.
Nevertheless, the only meaningful definition (as far as I am concerned) rejects the supernatural in general. Not only gods, but also angels, fairies and unicorns.
Everything else is a pick-and-choose religion: someone who doesn’t believe in god but in the fairy godmother is no more an atheist than a Christian who disbelieves in all other gods but the one true god. The whole point of atheism is going one god further.
And yes, I do realize that this comes within a whisker of the “no true scotsman” fallacy. But I’m not arguing that all atheists are completely rational (they are not). Just that the term is more general than its name tells us.
the label “atheist” only covers “without belief in deities”. It makes no positive assertions on what the individual does believe. So it doesn’t say if the person believes in fairies, it doesn’t say if they believe in pseudoscience, it doesn’t say if they have humanist values, it says nothing about the person other than they are without belief in god. In order to find out what an atheist does believe in, you have to go to some other label (or better yet, a full discussion).
Tough one but by definition an Atheist can believe in all sorts of other things like mediums etc. I am a skeptic Atheist. I am very dubious about Big Foot but if the facts come in that they exist then I will review my thoughts on the matter.
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